Ultimate Outcomes
Ultimate Outcomes
Authentic Christianity #18: Dear Children
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To know what good is, is to be able to make distinctions. Everything is confusing in life if we can't make distinctions. God, wants to make sure that his dear children, his spiritual children don't make life's most fundamental mistake and confuse who the true God is with idols. Is knowing who the true God is, life's most fundamental distinction?
Well. Good morning. This morning, as I mentioned, in the opening prayer, we're going to look at the importance of being able to distinguish one thing for another. In particular, being able to distinguish who is God and who is not. But I want to begin with this question. What causes what is good? What we distinguish as good to become less than good or to become perverted.
What causes something that's in a, pristine state to become degraded? What is the nature of perversion? And what is the relationship between, being good and being perverted? Isn't the idea of being perverted or being corrupted dependent upon the idea of knowing what's good to begin with? We can't distinguish, something to be less than good until we can distinguish something as being good.
We need to be able to distinguish, the best possible state before we can determine what a reduced state is, for example. We need to know about food. If we're going to say this food is not rotten, we need to know what good fresh fruit is. If we are going to say this meat is rotten.
We need to know what kind of state good meat is, or this tomato is fresh. Or this tomato is rotten. We need to be have the ability to distinguish between what fresh is and what, rotten is now. This is pretty fundamental sounding, but trust me, I'll get a little more, interesting as we go along.
To know what good is, is to be able to make distinctions. Everything is confusing in life if we can't make distinctions. If you could not distinguish the sounds of the words that I'm making, you would be confused. Every moment that you're listening to me, you're making hundreds of distinctions, without even thinking about it. You're thinking that word means this.
And that. This word means that. And it doesn't mean, something else. It's just, a result of, being able to interpret reality as a result of our being able to make distinctions. Well, we're in a time where distinctions are under attack. The I there's, movement in our, in our modern day where, there's many things that we're, many things that are being blurred because distinctions are being blurred.
One example would be grade inflation. 30 some years ago, when my wife was in graduate school, she got an A-plus at the Claremont Graduate School, and she asked her professor why an A-plus? Why? You know, all through college, she'd never gotten an A-plus. Just A's. And the. And the instructor says, well, in this age of grade inflation, we have to distinguish what's good from what's not good somehow.
So everyone gets A's except for if you get an A+. That's a good paper. You know, the the whole we've seen this whole movement in my lifetime with sports trophies where the trophies don't really distinguish anything anymore because everyone gets one. My wife and I were walking by a karate, or some kind of martial arts contest down in Oceanside the other day, and they were having in the Oceanside Bowl there in the, flat area in front of that.
If you've ever been there, they're having a big martial arts competition. And as we walked by, they had, what was it, at least ten trophies that were five feet high. You'd need a cathedral ceiling to put that thing on your mantel. It just seems like, it's getting harder and harder to distinguish, excellence, because everyone's,
Excellent. How can everyone be excellent? You know, we have the problem of distinctions on gender this last couple of weeks in the news, there was a story of a family that thought they were doing their son or daughter a good thing by not telling anyone what gender this child was, including the child. And, trying to see how the child would turn out if no one, if everyone, no one treating the child knew if it was a boy or a girl.
As I mentioned, there's a lot of, a reduction of distinction even in language. You know, if I were to say if I were to hold a toothpick in my hand and say, boy, this is an awesome toothpick, this is really an awesome toothpick. Well, what is a giant sequoia tree? Is a giant sequoia tree, Really awesome?
Well, if a giant sequoia tree is really awesome, then a toothpick really isn't awesome. Language loses its meaning when we start, when it starts losing its distinction, when everything is good and nothing is bad, then nothing is either good or bad.
With the loss of the ability to distinguish, we lose, the notion of goodness. Now, today is we're concluding in our message, authentic Christianity, reflecting Christ's love. Study in first John, we're going to look at life's very most important distinction. If we can't make this distinction, our whole life is confused and confusing. And the very most important distinction in life is to distinguish who God is and who God is not.
Without the ability to make this most fundamental distinction, all of life becomes a foggy blur. Who is the true God and who is not the true God? How our answer to this question. How does our answer to this question, frame our whole life and how well our life is lived? This morning's message is entitled dear children, as, the apostle, concludes his address to, those he's, speaking to as dear children.
Today we're going to be reading a little bit of, we're going to be reading verse 20, which we studied last week, but we're going to be, looking at the last part of verse 20, and, and we'll be studying the last verse of this text, verse 21. So, if you think this sounds familiar, it does, but we're going to be looking at parts of the verses that we didn't look at last week.
Heavenly father, Lord, as we come before your word, we thank you for, The light that the Apostle John has shed for us. And, Lord, I know there's several times during this series where I've called him the Apostle Paul and, it is it's confusing when I don't make correct distinctions. And I pray, father, that we would, come away from this lesson with the, certainty that we know who the true God is and who the true God isn't, that we wouldn't make those kind of confusing confusions as to who you are.
We pray that you would bless this word this week in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Okay. First John chapter five, verses 20 and 21, beginning at verse 20. It says, we know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, even his Son Jesus Christ.
He is the true God and eternal life. Dear children, keep yourselves from idols. I want to I want you to picture the Apostle John here. He's, old man in his 80s. Writing, his last, bit of advice to, his followers. And he concludes his letter as this old man in his, in his, waning days, tenderly referring to his readers as dear children, dear children.
He, wants to make sure that his dear children, his spiritual children don't make life's most fundamental mistake and confuse who the true God is with idols. The theme of our message this morning is this is knowing who the true God is life's most fundamental distinction. Look at verse 20 again, and we are in him who is true even in His Son Jesus Christ.
He is the true God and eternal life.
Knowing and understanding. Being in Christ. Having gained knowledge of God through Christ, we know who the true God is. He is the father whom the son has revealed to us. And why is that an important distinction to make? We live in a time when,
When if you make a distinction between one thing and another in some arenas and religion is one of them, you're considered a, a bigot, a narrow minded bigot. You've seen the bumper sticker here. Coexist. Everyone thinks it's good to get along with everyone else. And all Christians think it's good to get along with all these other groups.
But every one of those ideologies that are represented in that, bumper sticker, coexist. Believe a set of beliefs that contradict one another. So I can't be a Muslim and believe what Muslims believe about Jesus and be a Christian at the same time. And I can't be, I can't be, a Buddhist and a Christian or a Muslim.
That. Yes, we should get along with each other, but our ideologies aren't compatible. If there is any given or singular truth, then that truth contradicts what, That truth cannot coexist with that which contradicts it. So, you know, it's important to distinguish, what truth is actually true. So why is it important to know the true God?
God, by definition, is the central organizing principle of the whole universe. From the galaxies out there to the microscopic molecules, God, knowing who the true God is, is knowing the organizational principle. The structure of the universe. And if you don't know that you can't play the game, really you can't you don't know how to live life or function.
Well, if we failed in knowing, who the true God is, we will be lost in trying to understand life. And we won't be able to answer correctly the questions of where did we come from and why are we here, and what is the right thing to do, and where are we going? We won't. We won't be able to accurately answer life's most important questions.
Everything we do is organized around the exclusive claim, of knowing who God is and who he is not. Let me try to exemplify this, by using baseball as an analogy for life. When we're teaching our kids how to play baseball. We teach them immediately how to distinguish things. We can't start unless everyone knows what home plate is.
And it is not bigoted to say there's only one home plate, and there's only one first base, and there's only one second base, and there's only one third base. And it's not bigoted to say, kids, when you run, you need to run counterclockwise, starting from home plate to first base. And when you when you start to bat, you need to bat at home plate.
You can bat on the left side or the right side, but you need to be at home plate. Now, imagine if, coach, we're dealing with, one of the parents and the parent came up to the coach and said, coach, my son is not a home base hitter. He's a second base hitter. He bats from second base.
Well, he's going to be standing out there an awful long time, and he's not going to get any hits. He's going to be a little confused because the pitcher is a home plate pitcher.
But my son doesn't like to run in a clockwise or counterclockwise fashion. My son likes kind of a crisscross pattern. He likes to mix it up a little bit. Sometimes he likes to start at second and go to third and back to first, and then maybe to home. You can see what happens if you start, you know, blinding the distinctions that everyone has to accept and follow in order to play the game.
Everything in life, becomes clear when we make an agree on distinctions. At the beginning of this message, I ask the question, what causes what is good to become perverted? You could say this. What causes something to be, good? To become perverted is when, when we fail to make distinctions, when something, becomes what?
It is not designed to be moral goodness. For example, our actions that are right and wrong because they bless us or bless others if we can't make the distinction of what is good, we, we lose the ability to understand what is evil. And, when we fail to make the distinctions of what is good, we begin on a process of depravity.
We can't do what's right and good and true if we don't know what it is, if we can't distinguish goodness from what is perverse. Like starting in home plate in baseball, the first and most fundamental principle we need to know for life is who God is and who he is not. God is our home plate. Knowing the true God is home plate.
All of our thoughts and our actions begin there and are conformed with this starting life. That place that leave keeps life from being confusing, knowing who God is and who God is and is life's most fundamental distinction. And it's reflected in the first two commandments God gives the Ten Commandments. And the first, most fundamental commandment is this very idea that we're going to be talking about today.
And in combination with the second commandment, reinforcing it. And the first commandment is I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. Whoever God is, he is the God of the Hebrews who brought the Jews out of Egypt. He isn't RA, the God of Egypt.
He isn't, the gods of those illustrations. He isn't. Well, the Buddhist really don't have a god. He isn't. Allah. Allah is a kind of a counterfeit of the Jewish, God who took, the Jews out of Egypt. God is the God of the Hebrews who revealed himself through the Hebrew man, Christ Jesus.
That's who God is. And there is no other God before him. And number two, we're commanded not to make idols for ourselves. We're not to if we're going to live life well, we're not. We shouldn't substitute something else for the God of the Hebrews. For Yahweh, for the God who revealed himself through His Son Christ Jesus. Lesson one in life is this is home plate.
This is God and all others who claim to be God are not God.
Knowing who got the true God is is life's most fundamental distinction. Point number one is this Christ revealed our one and true God. Look at verse 20, part of verse 20 here where it says, and we are in him who is true? Who are we in? Who are we in Christ? We're in Christ, we're in him who is true, even his Son, Jesus Christ.
He is the true God and eternal life.
If there is one true God and one in whom eternal life resides, then every God that is not him is not God.
This is a exclusive statement here, and either we believe it or we do not believe it. There is one God, and that God is the God who has been revealed to us through Christ. In fact, Christ is God. This is the fundamental distinction that that separating this one true God that John says is revealed to us by His Son, and it shows us all the other gods that are not the true God, their false and temporary gods, as opposed to the true and eternal God.
Now why does this distinction? Why is this distinction so offensive in our time? Well, many distinctions are offensive in our time, but why is the truth about who God is offensive. Think, you know, it really is kind of confusing. If God is God, why is it offensive to say this is God? For example, I have only one earthly father.
I have only one earthly father. And there's nothing wrong with my proclaiming he is my earthly father, or was before he died, and no one else is my earthly father. What if some some rival to my father came up to me and tried to convince me that they were my father? And I started to behave as though maybe my father weren't my real father.
Wouldn't you expect my father if he were still alive, to say, son, I am your only father. I am your true father. This rival over here is not your father. You're going to be confused if you think this, This rival is your true father. Wouldn't you expect those who loved me to come up to me and say, this is not your father?
You only have one father. And this guy who's trying to usurp the place of your father is not your father. Well, would you see there being something wrong or bigoted with a person trying to convince me who my true father was? What would you think of those who, Who said to you, you know what? You can decide for yourself who your true father is.
You decide. You know, if he says you're his father, is he? And this guy says, you, you, you can be the one that decides who your true father is. It's narrow minded to say that there's only one true father. How can you be so narrow minded as saying that you only have one natural father? All fathers lead to the father's house.
After all. It sounds crazy when you, hear this argument this way, but it is, the way we're arguing today about. God, you know, it's bigoted to say there's only one true God. Not if there is only one true God. It's not bigoted. The most important distinction in life is who God is and who God isn't.
And to know, our true heavenly father is the father to whom the son revealed it. He is the one that can lead us out of darkness into the light. He is the one that can lead us out of the slavery of sin and death, and into the service of love and life. It is this father who sent His Son to save us.
But by making an atoning sacrifice on the cross, no other father out there sent his son to make an atoning sacrifice that's adequate for man sin. No other father sent his spirit that can dwell in men's life and lead and change men. There is no other father that can do that. There's only one father. And to know that father is life's organizing principle.
It is the first base or it is home plate for life itself to seek some other God. It, is to a successful life, as trying to bat at second base would be to a successful at bat. There's nothing to hit out there. Who knows if this blurring of distinctions continues in our culture? You know, who knows what's going to happen.
Maybe this, illustration of mine won't be so ridiculous. And 20 years from now, maybe there will be alternative batting locations in baseball. Who knows what's going to happen to our culture? If we continue to blur, all, all manner of distinctions.
The first commandment, the first and fundamental principle of life is there is one true God, and there is no other gods before him. That one true God is the God of the Hebrews, through whom Christ made visible to us.
Whom? Could you advance my slide? Again, the theme this morning is knowing who the true God is is life's most fundamental distinction. Let me see if it works here. And Christ revealed are one. True God is point number one. Christ revealed our one true God, and point number two is this I draw a tree is life's most fundamental error.
Idolatry is life's most fundamental error. The last word that this prophet, and this apostle John, speaks to his, followers is this, dear children, dear children, you can hear in that phrase the love that John has for his readers, dear children, dear little ones, this is the last thing I'm going to say to you. Keep yourselves from idols.
Keep yourself from idols. Above all else, keep yourself from idols. What exactly is idolatry? Idolatry is putting anything besides the true God as the object to which we orient ourselves around. Why do we have to actively stay on guard against idolatry? We see a perfect, description of idolatry in Romans chapter one, where in Romans chapter one it talks about how people, instead of worshiping the creator, worship his creation, they orient themselves around the beautiful, wonderful, good things that God has made.
And they turn those things that God has created into God. They orient themselves around the created world rather than the creator. They worship what God has made rather than God himself, and they turn what is beautiful into and it becomes perverted. In chapter one of Romans, we see the stair step into depravity as men worship. What isn't God as though it were God?
They are given over to a stair step of depravity and ultimately end up with a depraved mind. Their minds cannot be well organized or well, conform to reality if they deny reality's most fundamental principle. And that is, God is God, and we are not. And neither is anything that he has created that he is, separate and above all, the beautiful things he has made and, the things that he has made cannot substitute for he for God himself.
Think about this illustration here. Imagine a husband who, out of his love for his wife, builds his wife, her idyllic home, her dream house. He spends, a couple of years putting in a labor of love building for her her dream house. And after the house is done, she says to her husband, the house is beautiful. The house is so beautiful.
It has everything I need. You have done a good job building the house, and now that I have this house that's well-suited for me, that has everything, furnished. It's furnished the way I want. Everything is in this house that I need. What need do I have of you?
This house is all I need. Idolatry is like that. God has, appointed what is beautiful and good around us. But if we think that, we have no need of him because of what he's given us, and even in life itself, we are committing idolatry. Our creator, our sustainer, our Savior is our God, and he is our life.
And he is eternal life. And we can be grateful for all that he has created, but none of what he has created can substitute for him. He is the one true God, and nothing or and no one else is. And that God is the God who showed himself through Moses and through Jesus.
Again this morning, knowing who the true God is life's most fundamental distinction. Point number one Christ revealed our one true God. And point number two is idolatry is life's most fundamental error.
I'd like to conclude this morning by reading, the first commandment in Exodus chapter 20, verses one through three.
Exodus chapter 20, beginning at verse one, says this and God spoke all these words, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. Heavenly father, Lord, we come before you this morning, and we are grateful for all that you have given to us and all that you have created around us.
We're grateful for each other and we're grateful for the air we breathe. And we're grateful for the trees and the sun and the sky and and the food and and, the prosperity that is, in our country and for our jobs and for our health and and for, what it brings pleasure and enjoyment in life. But, Lord, we confess that none of these things are God, and we confess that you have no rival.
You are the eternal one, and then you is eternal life. You are the source of all that is good. And let us not say now that we have the house, we don't need its builder Lord, we need the builder. We need you, Lord. We need you beyond anything that you've made. We need you more than anything you've made.
We love you, Lord. Keep us from idolatry. We pray. Amen.